Music, Music and More Music: Tunes from September TV Shows

It’s been a while since I’ve posted TV music here mostly because it’s been quite slow in terms of tunes. Now that the new season has started, however, there is a glut. A three week glut, to be exact because I’m a little late in the starting.

Sorry for the onslaught, but there is some great music out there, and I have to share it. I hope you find something you like.

Revenge – This show has always been on point with their soundtrack and the first episode is no different. From the moody Chromatics song to the jamming Soft Swells and Tame Impala, I’m so glad Revenge is back.

Soft Swells – “Shake It Off, Turn It Up”

Chromatics – “Into the Black”

M. Ward – “There’s the Key”

Tame Impala – Elephant

How I Met Your Mother – Sure, everybody has used Band of Horses at some point in their show. And no, Band of Horses isn’t my favorite band. But some people like them and this song worked well against the final scenes of “Farhampton.” So, take a listen.

Band Of Horses – “The Funeral”

Bones – I’ve loved “Ho Hey” since last year when it was used on Hart of Dixie. And now the song is all over the place. David O Russell is even using it in his trailer for Silver Linings Playbook. But I have yet to get sick of the song. And that is the hallmark of a classic.

The Lumineers – “Ho Hey”

The Mindy Project – My new favorite show of the fall has some promising music. The highlight of the pilot, by far, was MIA. Poppy, fun, and slightly Indian: it represents the show perfectly.

MIA – “Bad Girls”

Private Practice – Lots of the music on Private Practice is too adult acoustic-y for me. But I managed to pick out some good ones, I think. I always have a soft spot for Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the Divine Fits song is just pure fun. Well done, Shonda Rhimes.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy – “Death to Everyone”

Divine Fits – “Flaggin a Ride”

Raising Hope – Not a show you think of for good music, but I’m cool with exceptions. This played over Jimmy’s proposal to Sabrina, and I think it’s great. And hey, I’ll take good songs where I can get them.

The Postelles – “White Night”

Grey’s Anatomy – The gold standard of good TV music is back with a vengeance. So many good choices. I’ve picked my favorites, two upbeat ones, and two sad songs that played over even sadder scenes. I love all four.

Mynabirds – “Body of Work”

Miss Li – “My Heart Goes Boom”

One Two – “Without You”

Kodaline – “All I Want”

Fringe – Another left field show in terms of music, but whatever. Only Fringe could make a new wave 80s hit into a haunting elegiac song lamenting the loss of Walter’s mind. Brilliantly used.

Yazoo – “Only You”

Parenthood – For this show, I’m four weeks behind. Yikes. Here, I’ve distilled about 16 songs into my top picks. Allie Moss because it makes me smile. Andrew Bird because, well, he’s Andrew Bird and you should like him. And Foreign Fields because it was the perfect song to play over the scene where Jasmine explains racism to Jabar. If you want to hear all the other songs I didn’t pick, head over to tunefind.com. They’re all there waiting for you to listen.

Allie Moss – “Corner”

Andrew Bird – “Orpheo Looks Back”

Andrew Bird – “Lusitania”

Foreign Fields – “Names and Races”

Well, that’s it, everybody. I definitely have some new things to listen to on my iPod, and I hope you take away some too.

Until next time,

Mary

Nerdiness, Thy Name is Excel

Ok, first off, I know, I know, I’ve been missing for most of the summer. But whatever, I’ve been very busy with a relatively new job, and plus, TV is on hiatus. My logic is that their summer off gives me the summer off, given that this blog is about TV.

But what about Breaking Bad, you say? Or Newsroom? Or True Blood? Well, really it came down to scheduling for me. Sundays are bad for me.  So many shows means that I catch up on Monday, and then I don’t have any time before Friday to write. So, I decided that rather than being a day late and a dollar short, I just wouldn’t pay at all. Forgive me if you missed me this summer.

Summer, however, is coming to a close. You know how I know this? Well, because today I got my Entertainment Weekly Fall TV Preview in the mail. Personally, I think it came a little late this year, but that doesn’t negate the significance it has for me. Every year, I sit down with the magazine open and plan my fall TV watching.

This is more scientific than you would think. I already have a block of shows that I watch, plus all the new shows coming up in the new season. My philosophy is to give any new show that sparks interest in me a three week trial period. With the magazine, I first eliminate all new shows that I don’t ever, ever want to watch. This year that includes Beauty and the Beast (I think that is pretty self explanatory), Call the Midwife (Copper has given me a bad taste in my mouth for period BBC America dramas), and Malibu Country (I didn’t watch Reba, I won’t watch this). At that time, I also leave off any shows from previous seasons which didn’t make the cut the first time around, like Once Upon a Time and Person of Interest. This leaves me with a pretty hefty, but not unruly docket of shows.

Now, this is where the nerdiness comes in. I then sit down and make a spreadsheet. I know. I understand how this looks, but you wouldn’t believe how helpful it is. All the shows go in a column for their appropriate night and time; returning shows go in bold because they will stay there, unchanged; new shows get “penciled in” and everything gets color coded by network. I also create a list of start dates, so I know what to set on my Tivo and when to expect a new show to arrive in my Now Playing list.

And voilà. I’m ready for fall. And for the first time ever, I’m going to share the list with you. If you find it helpful, you may even consider doing this next year yourself. I swear, it makes TV life much easier.

View the full size worksheet here.

I look forward to starting the new season. And I promise, I won’t disappear for two months again. There’s just too much to talk about for that.

Happy viewing,

Mary

Girls, Girls, Girls: It’s the April 15-21 TV Week in Review

I’m currently rewatching The Office season two right now. That may seem like an odd statement to start off my weekly review, but it has its purpose. I rewatching season two, and it reminds me just how good TV can be. The season is one of the best on television, hands down, bar none, ever. Nearly every episode is excellent, from Michael dancing in “Booze Cruise” to Jim confessing his love in “Casino Night.” It’s the quality of entertainment that I want all television to have, so when I’m doing my reviews week to week, I always hope that the show I’m watching is going to have the same level of brilliance.  More often than not, I’m disappointed, but on the rare occasions that a show does step up to the plate and knock one out of the park, it’s so fulfilling that I keep coming back for more. That’s how I watch TV. It’s a little like a crack addict chasing that perfect high, but I never said that TV wasn’t my addiction. In fact, I admit that it most definitely is. And with that insight, let’s get on with the reviews.

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Disarming people on Justified and strangling women on Mad Men: It’s the April 8-14 TV Week in Review

“Sometimes, when I’m stressed out, I like to punch sharks” – Travis on Cougar Town

I was reading this week about David Simon and his dislike of internet TV critics. Now, David Simon is someone I respect artistically to a great degree. So his opinion made me take pause. But then I read this extremely well-presented article from Noel Murray over at The AV Club. Like him, I think my goal of this weekly review is really to talk about television, not ruin it. I want to know if other people feel the same way I do and to engage in conversation with them. I may not like certain episodes of TV, but I do watch the shows nonetheless, religiously for the most part. So, I hope I don’t harm anyone/thing by posting my feelings here.

Also, random thought before we start. Why does Dr. Spaceman keep trying to sell me hotels and smart phones? And “when is modern science going to find a cure for a woman’s mouth?” Just wondering.

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April 1-7: Games of Thrones, Pillows and Blankets; It’s the TV Week in Review

“You love your children. It’s your one redeeming quality… that and your cheekbones.” – Tyrion on Game of Thrones

Well, I may be a day late and dollar short, but this week’s review is finally here. I’m starting to think that I may be biting off more than I can chew with trying to do this weekly, but I’m going to keep going as long as I can. (There’s possibly a dick joke in that sentence, but that’s up to you, not me and my dirty mind). Anyway, I made it before the new week’s shows started (or close enough), so I’m going to count this as a win.

Also, let’s talk about grades for a second. It’s been suggested that I should grade the episodes each week. Now, that does have some appeal to me because it’s a far more concrete way for you, the reader, to understand how I felt about an episode. But then again… Grades are so highly subjective. You can like something, or not like it, but to attach a concrete value seems a little arbitrary to me. I think grading a television show is sort of akin to when my sophomore English teacher tried to grade our poetry and gave me an 85 on a sonnet. An 85?!? It was a f-king sonnet!! I worked really hard on it; it followed the rules; you may not have liked it but how dare you say it wasn’t “poetic” enough!! But… um… I digress… If I’m going to grade things, you have understand that there’s a scale for each show. A “B” for Mad Men is greatly different from a “B” for Castle. Every grade is going to be curved to the best episode of that specific series. Therefore, for this post only, I’m going to give my example of an “A” grade for each show, just so you know where I’m coming from.

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March 25-31: TV Week in Review

“A sex receptionist answers calls all day. A sexcretary does scheduling, light filing—basically runs the office” – Schmidt on New Girl

Well, it’s been another busy week for me. And another very sparse week of TV. Really. I can practically count the number of shows that were on on one hand. But there were some notable things, especially the return of Mad Men. Because I don’t have time to go through each show this week, I’m gonna just focus on Mad Men. Everybody cool with that? If not, oh well, I’m in charge here. The rest will get cursory reviews at the end. And that’s final.

Now, to the reviews.

March 18-24: TV Week in Review

I don’t know who told you that pouting was an option with me, but all you’re making me feel is a hatred for Renee Zellweger. – Dean Pelton “Community”

Unfortunately, I’ve been super busy this week, so this weekly review is going to take a little different form than the posts before.  I can’t really go in depth for each episode that aired this week, so it’s going to be briefer, more summary likes and dislikes in cases. Hope everyone’s okay with that. If not, too bad. These are the jokes.

However, just because I’m condensing things this week doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun. Here’s a picture, just for your viewing pleasure:

Now, the reviews are after the jump.

March 11-17: TV Week in Review

Troy: There are a lot of layers to this.
Abed: It’s almost too conceptual to follow, but I love it.
                                                                 –Community

This week marks the return of Community, a veritable Scrubs reunion over on Cougar Town and a lot of shows that were good but not great.  I’m only going to go in depth into two shows – two “amahzing” shows, that is, arguably some of the best of the year – and then the rest will just be likes and dislikes, which is probably easier on you anyways.

But first, a little complaint about the shows I watch in general.  What was with all the bad green screen this week?  I’ve come to expect it on Private Practice where everything on the beach is fake looking (What? ABC can’t afford to film at a Malibu beach house?) but 30 Rock and The Office also had heinous offenses.  Either the shows are getting lazy and thinking they can fool us without us noticing or this is a disturbing new trend. (I also realize that a majority of people watch their HDTV with the wrong aspect ratio, not realizing it’s wrong, so maybe most people didn’t notice these problems.  But I’m not most people)

Oh, and one more thing before we get started. As with last week, I’m trying new formats, just to keep you on your toes. This time, it was suggested that I link to specific shows, so that you can just jump to that section you want without having to read about shows you don’t watch.  Now, I think that’s kind of effing lazy (ahem, friend, you know who you are), but I’ll test it out, see how it works – though, it is pretty cumbersome for me.  We’ll see how long it lasts.

You’ll find the links after the jump.

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March 4 – 10: TV Week in Review

“Your name isn’t that great either” – Cougar Town

Well, it’s week number three over here at Mary the TV Maven, and I finally think I’m getting the hang of things.  Or at least, I’m getting more verbose because this blog post got a little long on me – consider yourself forewarned.  The result of this thoroughness (I’m not going to call it wordiness) is that I’m trying something new.  I’ve added pagination to the post, so be on the look out for the link to the next page.  There are four pages total.  Hopefully, you like them.

And, now, to the reviews:

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February 19 – 25: TV Week in Review

The main question I’ve been asking myself since starting my blog a whole whopping day ago is how to arrange things.  Should there be some sort of order to the posts, like should all the posts follow the same sort of rules, or should each week have its own flavor based on my mood?  I’m leaning towards the latter, but in case I change my mind, please forgive me for trying to make things more organized than they need to be.  Also, should I cover every single show I watch each week or just focus on a few that stand out?  Again, I think the latter wins, so this week, I’m only going to write about the stand-outs and then give a few of my thoughts on the other shows.  With that said, let’s get started.